Marcus East

A judge in New York has acquitted three police officers who shot dead an unarmed man hours before his wedding.

Sean Bell, 23, who was black, was shot as he left a strip club in the suburb of Queens in November 2006.

Two detectives, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, faced charges of manslaughter. A third, Marc Cooper, had been accused of reckless endangerment.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Police acquitted over NY shooting.

What a shockingly sad story… It’s incredible that a man could be shot fifty times on his wedding day, whatever the circumstances.

However, how has this become a matter of ‘race’ when two of the police officers who fired the shots were black themselves?

I can entirely understand how this could stimulate concerns about the appropriate use of force, but I’m not sure I understand the logic behind the chants of ‘racist’ and ‘KKK’ at the policemen after their acquittal.

Surely, such political agitating risks polarising the debate and undermining an investigation into the real issue which is one of brutality and unreasonable force, not race?

Tags: NYPD, Shooting

Christians clash at Jesus’ tomb on Orthodox Palm Sunday
An Israeli police officer, left, tries to break up a fight between Greek and Armenian clergymen during Palm Sunday processions for Orthodox Holy Week, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed by many to be the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, Sunday April 20, 2008. Greek and Armenian priests scuffled at Christianity’s holiest site on Palm Sunday over who’ll get to spend more time at the traditional tomb of Jesus. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is jointly administrated by different Christian denominations. Fights often erupt during religious ceremonies over shared space or time. An Israeli police officer, left, tries to break up a fight between Greek and Armenian clergymen during Palm Sunday processions for Orthodox Holy Week, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed by many to be the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, Sunday April 20, 2008. Greek and Armenian priests scuffled at Christianity’s holiest site on Palm Sunday over who’ll get to spend more time at the traditional tomb of Jesus. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is jointly administrated by different Christian denominations. Fights often erupt during religious ceremonies over shared space or time. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Christians clash at Jesus’ tomb on Orthodox Palm Sunday - Boston.com.

It might sound shocking, but I visited the tomb with Erin at Easter, and it’s certainly the case that the environment is ‘tense’ and I was not at all surprised to read this story.

In many ways, it reflects the difficult relationship between religions – and groups within religions – around the world.

However, it is a real shame that such a holy place is not considered sacred enough to be more important than human foibles – I hope that the people who have been captured in these photographs will be sufficiently embarassed to ensure that it doesn’t happen again!

Prince Harry has been secretly serving on the front line in Afghanistan with British troops since December, it emerged today.

The 23-year-old, who is third in line to the throne, has spent the past 10 weeks as a forward air controller (FAC) in the dangerous southern province of Helmand, guiding fighter jets towards suspected Taliban targets.

Prince Harry secretly serving in Afghanistan | UK news | guardian.co.uk.

I think that this is fantastic – good on Prince Harry for finding a way to get out there, and he’s a brilliant soldier by all accounts

Chimpanzees have an extraordinary photographic memory that is far superior to ours, research suggests.

Young chimps outperformed university students in memory tests devised by Japanese scientists.

The tasks involved remembering the location of numbers on a screen, and correctly recalling the sequence.

The findings, published in Current Biology, suggest we may have under-estimated the intelligence of our closest living relatives.

Until now, it had always been assumed that chimps could not match humans in memory and other mental skills.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Chimps beat humans in memory test.

This is quite incredible to watch – but is reacting to patterns and sequences really an indication of intelligence, or is it just an ability that is not that useful to us and so has been lost?

Either way, a surprising result!

Drought-stricken Australia is struggling to cope with the worst dry spell on record, which has even resulted in murder…

The two rivers which feed the Murray-Darling basin in the southeast of the country are so low that there will soon only be enough water for drinking supplies.

Sydney resident Kenny Proctor, 66, was watering his lawn when he was allegedly accused by passer-by Todd Munter, 36, of wasting the precious resource.

The pair reportedly argued and Mr Procter is said to have turned his hose on Munter who allegedly retaliated by kicking and punching him to the ground.

The grandfather suffered a heart attack and died. Ironically he had been watering his garden at one of the few times permitted - after 4pm on a Wednesday.

Channel 4 - News - Drought results in Aussie man’s murder.

I couldn’t believe this when I first heard it, but it appears to be true – what a tragic and pointless loss of life!

Is this a taste of what we may experience in the future?

Some observers suggest that water will become the most valuable resource in years to come – let’s hope that what our cousins down in Australia are experiencing is not an indication of what our future holds in store…

A British firm’s plan to sell software that could open the iPhone to non-US networks has been put on hold following legal threats.

Last week, Belfast-based UniquePhones joined several others in claiming it had cracked the code which locked iPhone into AT&T’s network.

But a middle-of-the-night phone call from AT&T’s lawyers has forced the firm to rethink its plans.

It will now take legal advice to assess the ramifications, the firm said.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Legal threats halt iPhone crack.

I got my iPhone a few days ago and I have to say that I’m impressed - the interface is slick, the device beautifully engineered and the out-of-the-box experience is exceptional.

The thing that I’m confused about is this – why are so many people getting obsessed with ‘cracking’ their iPhones?

When you invest in a product like an iPhone, part of the experience is the software and service element that comes with it.

As a stand-alone phone, the iPhone is OK, but not exceptional. What makes it magical for me is the way that I can carry my iTunes library around with me, and the beauty of the tightly-integrated o2 services. Without those, it’s just a nice-looking device, but nothing special.

So why are so many people risking everything by spending so much time and effort to crack their phones and free them from o2 and Apple?

Ultimately, the concept of buying a phone and being tied to a network is not a new one. It’s obvious that Apple and o2 are heavily subsidising the cost of the devices to ensure that it is available to as wide an audience as possible.

It’s also likely that future firmware releases are going to lock down or even scramble these phones in the future, which will make some people’s phones no more useful than paperweights.

You might not like it, but the o2 / Apple tie-up is part of the package – if you don’t like it or cannot afford it, don’t buy an iPhone!

The chief executive of troubled British bank Northern Rock, Adam Applegarth, has resigned, the lender has said.

The bank’s shares collapsed after it was forced to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England in September.

Concerned customers rushed to withdraw their money, and the bank has since been seeking bidders to rescue it.

Two suitors, Virgin Group and investment firm Olivant Advisers, confirmed they had made proposals to rescue the bank by a Friday deadline.

BBC NEWS | Business | Northern Rock’s chief steps down.

It’s no surprise that several suitors have submitted formal bids for the purchase of Northern Rock, but the potential involvement of Virgin is fascinating.

As a Virgin Rock customer, I was trying to imagine how it would feel to have such an important financial relationship with a brand that I know, respect and have affection for…

Every time customers’ monthly mortgage payments would go up, they’d be receiving a letter from Virgin telling them this.

Every time someone’s house is to be re-possessed, it would be under the Virgin brand – does that sit comfortably with their brand values?

I think that providing entertainment services and non-essential financial services is one thing, but to extend the relationship to something that can be some important and so much potential to go wrong could be a step too far in my opinion!

Barclays has confirmed that it did not escape the woes from investments in risky US home loans, taking a hit of £800m ($1.64bn) in October.

Sub-prime write-downs at its Barclays Capital investment bank arm now total £1.3bn, taking into account a £500m write-down in the third quarter.

The write-down was less than feared, and the bank said Barclays Capital profits were higher than last year.

Rumours had circulated that the bank was hiding big mortgage-backed losses.

“Today’s extensive disclosure demonstrates the strength and resilience of our performance during the year and in particular during the turbulent month of October,” said Barclays chief executive John Varley.

The bank also said Barclays Capital still had more than £5bn worth of exposure to investments in packages of debt, which includes exposure to US sub-prime mortgages.

However, despite the problems the bank said it still managed to make a pre-tax profit of £1.9bn in the first 10 months of 2007 even after it wrote down the losses.

BBC NEWS | Business | Barclays reveals sub-prime losses.

Well, I find this interesting. I was at a dinner party on Friday, and one of the things that we talked about was how badly the American sub-prime lending fiasco was going to be felt here.

It was my belief that we will feel it, but it won’t have the same impact as in the States and I don’t see any UK CEOs losing their jobs (I mean, if the CEO of Northern Rock is still there….)

These results from Barclays support my view. Obviously, they are lucky that the low value of the Dollar makes any losses over there easier to swallow, but the fact that Barclays is one of the most international of our high-street mortgage lenders, but has only experienced modest losses is very reassuring!

At worst, I think that it will curtail their ambitions for big acquisitions.

Some will say that the British banks are only drip-feeding their losses out, and that their exposure remains high, but how much of an exposure is $1bn going to be in a couple of years – that could be £400m if the dollar continues to slide!

I am often frustrated by the way that the Media tries to portray crime in this country as being out of control. A free Press has many advantages, but one of the huge disadvantages is their propensity to sensationalise and exaggerate in order to sell more papers and get more viewers.

As a businessman, I understand this, but I worry about the negative impact that this over-eager portrayal of crime has on society.

Despite the fact that crime is generally lower than it was ten years, people like my mother have been convinced by the tabloids that their lives are in danger the minute that they step outside their front door.

Clearly, there are some very serious problems to be addressed, such as the increase in knife and gun crime, but we need to look at the causes of these seriously and not dismiss them as being entirely due to ‘gangsta rap’ and ‘computer games’.

As someone who sometimes listens to that type of music, and has been known to wield a gun in the odd computer game, I don’t think that doing either has made me likely to commit a violent crime.

(The fact that I plated Cowboys and Indians with my friends around the streets of Bounds Green seems more likely to lead to that sort of behaviour!)

Any increase in violent crime is probably a result of the increased polarisation in our society, and we’ll make more progress trying to tackle that than focusing on red herrings like computer games – I’ve seen many Hollywood films that are more violent than the average shoot-em-up.

I have found that my extensive business travels are very useful in giving me a perspective on life in my beloved England, and when it comes to violent crime, it’s no exception.

I found this recent summary of murder rates around the world:

Admittedly, this chart is few years out of date, but I’m reliably informed that the relative positions of the countries have stayed broadly the same.

Next time you feel a pang of nerves about crime in England, just be thankful that you don’t live in nearby Belgium which has a murder rate three times as high!

Doctors are seeing patients in their late teens and early twenties with severe alcohol-related disease.More than a hundred specialists from around the UK have told the BBC of their concerns in response to a questionnaire.They said their hospital wards are being filled by a growing number of young people, particularly women.

BBC NEWS | Health | Alcohol disease ‘hits young hard’.

Well, this is not news to me, surely everyone knows that alcohol is deadly and that our young are drinking far too much of it?

The question is, what can we do about – I think that encouraging 24–hour drinking doesn’t help - and a significant dose of additional taxation would probably quell people’s appetites for booze